Bairstow and Atkinson damaged the Kiwis and won the 2nd T20

Earlier Jonny Bairstow top notch innings and later Gus Atkinson dangerous bowling clubbed the New Zealand batters and won the match by 95 runs. England posted 198/4 in 20 overs and New Zealand made 103/10 in 13.5 overs. 

England already won the 1st T20 as Brydon Carse trapped Kiwi batters in his debut match. Now with this they are leading the series by 2-0. 

Jos Butler after winning the toss opted to bat first. 

England batters played superbly. Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook brilliant knocks helped their team to get 198 runs in 20 overs. From the starting Bairstow looks in good touch and due to which he remained not out at the end. He scored 86 runs in 60 balls which includes 8 fours and 4 sixes. He along with Brook put up a partnership of 131 runs for the 3rd wicket. 

Harry Brook showed his fierce batting and scored 67 runs in just 36 balls. He hit 5 fours and 5 sixes in his innings. A pure dominance showed by both of them. In the end Jos Butler (13 runs) hit a six and got the target close to 200.

Adam Milne was economical in his spell but unfortunately he wasn’t able to get any wickets. Remaining all the bowlers have an economy of at least 9 or more. Ish Sodhi gets 2 wickets whereas Tim Southee and Mitchell Santner took 1 wicket each. 

Kiwi batters looked in trouble from the starting and their wicket fell at regular intervals. It was hard for them to get a good partnership so that they might achieve the target. Tim Seifert, the keeper batter from the side was the highest scorer from New Zealand. He scored 39 runs in 31 balls and hit 4 fours. 

Two other batsmen who scored double digits were Glenn Phillips (22 runs) and Mark Chapman (15 runs). Rest went to the pavilion in single digit only. And as a result they only managed 103 runs in 13.5 overs and lost all of their wickets. 

Gus Atkinson destroys the Kiwi batters with his utter pace. He grabbed 4 wickets. Adil Rashid got 2 wickets. Sam Curran, Brydon Carse, Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks got 1 wicket each. 

Jonny Bairstow, England, Player of the Match

“Great team performance tonight. To post that total and to defend it was a great effort. Decent ball at Durham, happens when you bat at the top of the order. Got a start here and got a lot easier once I settled in. Partnership between myself and Brook turned out to be a match winner. We haven’t batted much together but it was great to bat with him. He’s been batting really well.

Didn’t quite get loads of the strike in the end. Best give it to the guys coming in when they can strike them like that. Hopefully another opportunity will come to score a hundred and I can become the third one (score 100 in all formats). Gus Atkinson has raw pace, it’s scary for other teams. A performance like that on debut will give him a lot of confidence. We are sure that this is the first of many caps for him.”         

Tim Southee, New Zealand Captain

“Not ideal but those margins can be highlighted in this format. We weren’t great with the ball and that makes it harder for the batters to come and chase it down. I think we started pretty well with the ball but Brook and Bairstow took the momentum away from us and we couldn’t back in. 

The way Adam Milne bowled was exceptional. He showed the rest of us what was working. Number of the guys are still reasonably young, tough when you ask the batters to try and chase such a total down. Hopefully we can come back strong in a couple of days.”

Jos Butler, England Captain

“Brilliant performance. Though we were excellent at Durham and to come down here and play like this was excellent. Always special to see guys make debuts. Another journey in international cricket. Nice from Atkinson to come out and bowl like he did. He has been on an upward curve recently so it was important to get him into the international setup quickly. 

Guys like Moeen, Jacks and Livingstone offer so much with both bat and ball. We know what a class player Brook is, credit goes to him as there’s a lot of noise around but he hasn’t let it affect him.”

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